ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The Peace Parks Foundation (PPF) was established in 1997 to facilitate Transfrontier
Conservation (TFCA) initiatives in the SADC region and thereby support economic development,
conservation of biodiversity, as well as the promotion of regional peace and stability. To this
effect, their regional planners require a thorough knowledge of the condition of areas in which the
estimated actions will be carried out. To date, the PPF have used base datasets, such as land cover
and population densities, in their GIS projects to support their decision making processes.
However, they have realised the importance of developing rigorous methods for the extraction and
generalization of biodiversity information for informed conservation decisions. The main aim of
this study was, therefore, to develop a spatial framework for the generalisation and integration of
data to become meaningful information that may be readily interpreted. The resultant framework
represents a methodology for, firstly, identifying and, secondly, prioritizing core natural areas or
units (CNU). CNUs were modelled to represent large blocks (minimum 100 km') of contiguous
natural vegetation that are far from major roads and densely populated places. They were, then,
ranked into three classes of importance (low, medium and high) according to an ecological value
derived for each. This made the framework comprehensive in its considerations of regional
biodiversity and robust enough to be used for planning at the SADC scale. By organising data and
quantitative approaches logically in a robust, but rigorous, way, spatial frameworks provide the
structure for combining specialized knowledge as well as scientific analysis and pragmatic politics
in an effective planning process. This could guide plans which are proactive instead of reactive,
visionary as well as pragmatic and well founded in research and understanding.